It might be hard to understand for the casual football fan, but the hardcore New Orleans Saints fans were actually feeling pretty good as they watched their team drop their final game of the season. The Saints lost their Week 18 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons 19-17, but came away from the game feeling like the real winners.

Falcons Fire Coach Morris and GM Fontenot, Saints Stay Solid

First of all, just hours after the Falcons beat the Saints, Atlanta fired their Head Coach Raheem Morris and General Manager Terry Fontenot in a full-scall house cleaning. While the Saints are feeling pretty confident after first-year Head Coach Kellen Moore led the Saints to a much more successful season than many expected.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Which brings us to the second point; the New Orleans Saints finished the season with a 6-11 record. While that’s not a winning record, or even close to one, it still feels much better than the predicted results the Saints faced. When the season was kicking off, most Saints fans expected the team to win less than 3 games. The Saints hitting the 6-win mark actually provides some optimism moving forward.

Tyler Shough’s Rookie Season Performance

Most optimism is provided by point number 3 on this list…Tyler Shough.

Sure, we’ve been on the “Tyler Shough is an old rookie” train since the Saints used a Second Round Draft Pick on him. And there should still be concern that the rookie QB is older than Brock Purdy, Trevor Lawrence, Michael Penix, CJ Stroud, Drake Maye, Bryce Young, and Jayden Daniels. But truthfully, Shough’s play this year made a lot of people forget all of that.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Shough ended up with a winning record as a starting QB, winning 5 of his 9 starts. He threw for over 2,300 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season…but he did throw 6 interceptions. Silver lining to the INTs is that he never threw more than one in a game.

Before we put more praise on Shough and Kellen Moore, lets talk about the icky part of NFL business.

Saints 2026 Salary Cap Outlook

The Saints spent a large chunk of the last decade kicking the can down the road with contracts. They were over the cap year after year, and had to keep restructuring contracts to get under. Which just stretched out the pain on some of these deals. So now there are a handful of fan-favorite players at the end of their contracts, who have dead-cap money hanging over the team. The salary cap situation could be helped out if some of those players choose to retire…but that’s not guaranteed.

Taysom Hill, Demario Davis, Cam Jordan, and Foster Moreau all have expiring contracts…and those are going to help the Saints go from having one of the 5 worst salary cap situations, to being in the top half of the league.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

So even though the team might be losing some big time favorites, they’re finally getting rid of their cap space nightmare.

Future Optimism Under Kellen Moore

Basically, the season ended with a losing record, and you’re probably saying farewell to some franchise legends, but the Saints are feeling good. Kellen Moore actually seemed to have a plan with the team. Tyler Shough actually looked like a competent NFL quarterback. And the team won way more games than most people expected. With all of that considered, the Saints are feeling a lot better than most of the NFL.

Every Saints First Round NFL Draft Trade Since 2010